


Search, then Rescue

by Rizobact



Series: Curb Finds [2]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime, Transformers: Shattered Glass
Genre: Challenge Response, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-13 23:58:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5721949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rizobact/pseuds/Rizobact
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Knock Out have gone missing. Swindle's search party is only partially successful; looks like they're going to need a rescue party, too!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Search, then Rescue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [12drakon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/12drakon/gifts).



> Written for a challenge in my writing group - part one was to write a short scene from one of our own not-yet-posted stories, and part two was to come up with a possible prequel/concurrent/sequel scene based on the others' fills for part one.

Everyone had been paired up to form search teams as soon as Knock Out and Steve had failed to check in after going out on recon. Swindle wouldn’t admit it, but he was glad to be with Vortex as they set out deep into the contested territory in the direction the lost mechs had last been heard from. This area made him uncomfortable, and the rotary’s familiar presence overhead and over their bond was reassuring.  
  
 _Missions like this are always either spectacularly boring or spectacularly interesting._ The smart bet would be to put his shannix on interesting. Given what that would entail, Swindle would almost rather be out the money…almost.  
  
Several joors of nervous, nearly silent searching later, their team was the first to spot Knock Out. He was pacing distractedly over the same couple of steps at the base of a rusted outcropping down in a valley, the short path now well-worn into the ground beneath his feet. There wasn’t a scratch on him, but something was clearly wrong – he was twitchy, anxiously looking around, yet he didn’t seem to notice their approach.  
  
Steve was nowhere to be seen.  
  
 _At least now I know why we couldn’t get a clear read on his location,_ Swindle thought as he and Vortex made their way down to the red sports car, his own plating twitching as he felt the terrain rising up around them interfering with their comm. signals. Pops of static echoed annoyingly in his audials.  
  
Finally Knock Out did notice them, but he didn’t seem to recognize them, trying to scrabble away on foot rather than coming toward them when he did. “Woah, it’s okay, it’s us, you’re okay!” Vortex said, dropping down to block his escape to one side while Swindle came in around the other. “Relax!”  
  
Worried and frustrated as he finally got in close enough to grab a shoulder pauldron and stop Knock Out trying to dart away from them (and getting a couple of scratches from the medic for his trouble before he managed it), Swindle controlled his expression of the latter. It wouldn’t help to upset the others over the gestalt link when everyone was already on edge. At least the light of recognition finally appeared in Knock Out’s optics and he ceased struggling to break free, though his frame language remained tense and unsettled.  
  
“Let the others know we found him,” Swindle told Vortex, who immediately began struggling to radio back an update past the interference. He could hear him retrying the call multiple times before it went through. “What happened?” he asked Knock Out. “Where is Steve?”  
  
The red mech flinched at the words. “SHHHH!” He said loudly, completely counter to the exaggerated gesture he made for him to be quiet. “THEY MIGHT STILL BE OUT THERE!”  
  
Swindle couldn’t tell if Knock Out had damaged his audials and couldn’t hear how loud he was, or if he could hear but was still too distraught to notice. “Who might still be out there?” he asked urgently, concern increasing. Whatever had happened to cause the medic to behave like this without leaving any visible traces behind couldn’t have been good.  
  
“ _THEM_!” Knock Out ‘whispered’ back. His pointed digits curled reflexively in the air as though grasping for a non-existent weapon. Swindle looked around, purple optics falling on a small piece of metal of a similar shade glinting up from the ground just beyond the track worn in the dust. He reached down to retrieve it, brushing it clean and staring mutely. He recognized that paint.  
  
“Hey – I managed to get in touch with the other teams and with Soundwave. He says we should bring Knock Out back first before we start looking for Steve,” Vortex said, interrupting his thoughts. “Unless you’ve already found something?”  
  
“Yeah, I found something.” Swindle replied, offering up the evidence to the other mech. Vortex took it and examined it before raising his helm and looking around hopefully. Swindle was scanning the area again, too, but he wasn’t optimistic. As he expected, there was no further sign of Steve.  
  
Sighing, Swindle turned to Knock Out. “You didn’t get separated, did you? Did they take him?”  
  
Knock Out seemed to be calming down a little. His optics were no longer darting around quite as frantically as they had been, and this time when he looked at Swindle they focused on him properly as he nodded guiltily. “WE HAVE TO SAVE HIM. THEY’VE TAKEN HIM TO RATCHET!”  
  
“We will,” Vortex reassured him, though his voice shook slightly with a not-fully suppressed tremor at that revelation. “But we need to get out of here first, I can’t get a strong connection to any of the others. Soundwave says it’s all but a dead zone and I really don’t want to wind up dead in it if there’s Autobots still hanging around.” What he didn’t say but Swindle could feel from him was the fear that Knock Out had been left behind as bait to lure them in. It was making him eager to be off the ground and back in the air.  
  
Swindle was in complete agreement – it was time to blow this joint. _No benefit to sticking around here another astrosecond._ He turned to Knock Out. “Can you drive?”  
  
Wordlessly the red mech transformed, engine revving fitfully with the same impatience to get moving. Vortex and Swindle followed swiftly, all three taking off together at top speed. The sooner they got back, the sooner Onslaught could start planning that rescue mission.  
  
Hopefully Steve could hold out that long.


End file.
